Introduction

Chapters 1, 2
1 and 2 God numbers and arranges His people around His tabernacle

The first thing to be noticed is, that God numbers His people
exactly, and arranges them, once thus recognised, around His
tabernacle: sweet thought, to be thus recognised and placed around God
Himself! But here it had no reference to calling by faith, but to
families, and households, and tribes. That order was carefully
maintained when encamped at rest, or on their march; but it was the
order of a nation and its tribes. God dwelt there, but the unity of
the body, or of the Spirit -- union in any sense had no place.

Three tribes on each side of the court kept the tabernacle of
Jehovah. Levi alone was excepted, in order to be consecrated to the
service of God: therefore the tribe of Levi encamped according to
their families immediately around the court. Moses, Aaron, and the
priests were placed opposite the entrance whereby God was
approached. The least things in the word deserve to be noticed. Psalm
80 is entirely opened by the position of the tribes. The spirit of the
psalmist asks, in the last days of the desolation of Israel, for God
to lead them and to manifest His power as He did when He led them
through the wilderness; he asks for the power of His presence on the
ark of testimony, as God manifested it when it was said, at the moment
when Israel set forward, "Rise up, Jehovah, and let thine enemies
be scattered." Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh were the three
tribes nearest the ark in the camp of Israel; that is why it is said,
in verse 2 of the Psalm, "before Ephraim, Benjamin, and
Manasseh."

In the setting forward of the camp, the order given was that the
tabernacle, surrounded by the Levites, should be in the midst of the
tribes, as it was when the camp was at rest (chap. 2: 17). It was in
the midst of them as of an army that was its guard, as the
rallying-point of worship and approach when the camp was at rest. They
kept the charge of the Lord.

In chapter 10 we shall find that another arrangement took place as
a matter of fact: of this, in its place.